U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch is warning that tensions between Moscow and the West could quickly escalate if Russia continues to violate Ukraine’s territorial integrity, breaking a longstanding political pact between the world’s nuclear powers.

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In a phone interview with our news partners at the Patriot Ledger from Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine, Lynch, a South Boston Democrat, said the Russians are a party to the 1994 Budapest agreement, in which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons stockpile for guaranteed sovereignty and security.

He said Russia’s recent annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea is in breach of that agreement, which Moscow has further threatened with a strong military presence on the Ukrainian border.

“Now we’re at the brink of war if things were to spiral out of control, and it wouldn’t be good at all,” Lynch said of the boiling tensions. “It’s not just the relationship between Russia and the United States in the balance, it’s the state of the world.”

A senior member of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Lynch is part of a congressional mission that has stopped in Ukraine after making stops in Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine.

Led by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the delegation was supposed to visit Iraq, but New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte instead suggested meeting with government officials and democratic opposition leaders in Ukraine.

Russia’s seizure of Crimea, where a majority of the residents are ethnic Russians, came after the ousting of Ukraine’s Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych last month, triggering the worst confrontation between the East and the West since the Cold War.

“I think we should be very concerned, but, at the same time, they have not asked us for U.S. boots on the ground, nor have they asked for NATO to come in,” Lynch said following talks with Yatseniuk and other leaders.

Lynch said the Ukrainians are most concerned about security, as Russia has undertaken “massive troop movements” to the country’s border, raising anxieties about a potential invasion.

While Russian leaders have called the movement a military exercise, Lynch said American leaders are skeptical.

“In my opinion, the number of troops looks more like an invasion than a military exercise,” he said.

Lynch said he spoke to many draft-eligible Ukrainians who have received mobilization letters from the government, which he called “a pretty serious step.”

Congress this week will likely vote on granting a loan guarantee to the Ukrainian government, and will discuss the potential for providing the country with non-lethal aid, such as military uniforms and boots.